@d2girls, The ARC Ref 5 and Ref 5SE are discontinued, and can be had on the used market for roughly $5K and $7K respectively.
The Ref 6 is the current ARC model, which lists for $14K, compared to the list of $13K for the Ref 5SE and $12K for the Ref 5.
That said, I'm not sure that ARC is what you are looking for. Yes, the bass will be a bit leaner, but high resolution is the ARC's magic, not *tube magic* per se, as @larryi noted above.
BAT tube preamps sacrifice nothing in the bass department compared to SS, and have a bit more tube magic, though are not as revealing as ARC.
If you are looking for warm tube sound, you probably should look for a Cary, conrad johnson, or Joule Electra preamp.
Cheers,
John
